Fire on granite ship

Fire on granite ship    One would think a ship carrying granite wouldn’t have to worry much about a cargo-related fire, but a spectacular blaze occurred Wednesday in the Port of Tampa when a conveyor belt unloading rock caught fire.
   The Coast Guard said it was notified of the fire Wednesday morning onboard the Sophie Oldendorff, a 742-foot Liberian-flagged cargo vessel with a self-unloading conveyor belt that reportedly caught fire during cargo offloading operations.
   The Tampa Tribune reported it took about 100 firefighters, 24 fire trucks and a fire boat four hours to extinguish the blaze. It added that while the conveyor belt was damaged, the rest of the ship was not. Hot weather made it particularly difficult for firefighters battling the fire.
   The newspaper has photos of the fire here.